Winners Galore!

It's exactly a month since my Fourth Blogaversary so I guess I ought to announce the winners of the Grand Giveaway?  To enter you needed to leave a comment on the Blogaversary post telling me your top three of the seven charts I was offering.  If you had entered the Easter Treasure Hunt your name got put in twice, if you had been a Picture Poster for the Easter Treasure Hunt you got another entry and if you linked up for April's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL then you also got another entry.  So that made a maximum of four entries in the draw!  And a rather complicated spreadsheet too.

But the Random Number Generator did its duty and the following people were chosen to receive the following charts:

Evalina - This and That

A - Lizzie*Kate Friends are Angels

plus Peace, Love and a Cure (not shown)

Ariadne from Greece 

B - Christmas Number 1

Annette - California Stitcher

C - Christmas Number 2

Christine - The Alchymyst's Study

D - Christmas Number 3

Carla - Alaska Wolf Pack

E - Told in a Garden - The Courting

Noni - Fireflies & Cats in the Garden

F - Told in a Garden - Piecemakers I

Vickie - A Stitcher's Story

G - Told in a Garden - Voice of the Shepherd

I have addresses for some of you, but not all, so if you are reading this then please email me your address.  If you are not reading this, then don't worry because I will email you!

So, apart from organising spreadsheets and draws, what have I been doing this week (and apart from my civic duty yesterday too)?  Stitching of course!  Tuesday was the day for Pretty Little London to have another building constructed:

Week 10

Added a bus and a guardsman

Week 11

Added The Shard on the left

I have also been diligently stitching on The Book of Spells each evening.  This one isn't just black, there are areas of grey and brown too!  The original is charted in GAST and WDW but she provides a DMC conversion.  I am using her conversion for some colours and my own for others.

Stitched on 40 count Jewel Butterbeer linen.

The fabric is very wrinkled but I rather like that because it makes it look more leathery, like the cover of an old book.

I've also been doing a little framing and scrapbooking:

Lizzie*Kate - Friends are Like Angels.

I really wanted the page with that famous painting with the two cherubs looking up at the sky but they didn't have it anymore so I got this cloud paper and some cherub stickers.

Just Nan - Winter Typography.

Raw wood frame painted with a test pot and a couple of snowflake stickers added.

Finally, thanks to the D.E.S.I.G.N. SAL I discovered yet another new-to-me designer - Elli Jenks.  She does a range of cross stitch rugs for dolls' houses and a 3D village called Brightsea.  Of course this design just called out to me:

She has an Etsy shop found here and there is free postage if you order over US$15.  So now I just have to wait to save up enough SFS budget to able to treat myself.  I have promised that when I finished the Nutmeg Cottage design I can have one of these.  So there's an incentive!

June TUSAL

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This month is an outdoor TUSAL, Joan Elliott's Wizard posing with Brooke's Books June cake.  The plan is to stitch all 12 of those monthly cake designs.  I’ve managed two!

The postman was busy again last month and has delivered all four of the parcels I sent out for my Easter Treasure Hunt and Blogaversary Giveaways.  Here is the Prize Pile before they went out:

Each person got a stitched item, some cotton fabric, some ribbon, some buttons and some fruit tea bags to drink or use to hand dye fabric.  I put some chocolate in the pouches and a Pooh bear chart for Emma who likes Disney.  Here is each stitched item on its own:

Margaret Sherry Cat in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Margaret Sherry Mice in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog 

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog

This week I have been focused on the Mirabilia Shimmering Mermaid for the Round Robin in the evenings. For myself I have been stitching the monthly Alphabet Kitty, the Dragon Dreams design and Joan's June Wizard.  Pictures saved for another day!

Finally I have launched the sign-ups for my Summer Blog Hop.  This year the theme is "There's No Place Like".  All I need from you is a stitched picture on the Home theme.  Click on the nice bright green Home design on the top right of the blog for full details.

Theme-a-licious April Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

April's theme is:

Amazon April

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

The first BAP is the Large Mirabilia Round Robin.   We decided to make the boxes twice as large as usual (5,000 stitches rather than 2,500) as we could fit more of the design in.  There are three groups of four stitchers and we get 12 weeks to stitch rather than the usual 6 weeks.  Even so, of course, I was still stitching almost up to the limit!

This the Archangel Michael:

This is his Bling:

And this is the whole of the design so far:

Julie chose Angels as her theme and designed this incredible layout herself.  The fabric is PTP Heather Lugana and is really soft and lovely to stitch on.  Archangel Michael is one of the less stitched Mirabilia designs which is one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to stitch him.  I don't think I'd ever do the full piece for myself but it is nice to stitch something different.

There is a ton of metallics, beads and treasures even in this small piece of the design, 12 of those little topaz diamonds for a start.

That's it for this theme so far!  I still have Sophia's Band Sampler RR glaring reproachfully at me from the corner of the room so I must crack on and finish that next.  Then the choice is between Joan Elliott's Green Goddess and the Scarlet Letter Sampler.  Difficult decisions indeed!

Thank you all very much for your Congratulations on my recent Blogaversary.  I'm glad you liked the cute photo, I have cute photos of me up until the age of 7 or so, then I'll just post a picture of a cake or something LOL.  It was great to read about all your progress (or lack thereof) since last Easter.  I remember alot of the projects so I must have been paying attention throughout the year.

I allocated everyone a playing card and got the Large Boy to pick a card, any card and not put it back.  Then do it again because it's my 2nd Blogaversary so we'll have two winners.  The winners of a small something are........

Giovanna

 and 

 Emma/Itzy

Finally, I just noticed a few more followers have joined me, heading towards 400 now, so there's another excuse for a little giveaway.  I'll wander off and try think of something interesting to ask you all.  You don't get anything for free on this blog, you have to work for it!

April TUSAL and Dancing Daffodils

This is April's TUSAL, posing with the two uncompleted Spring/Easter designs I started as part of March Madness.  The picture in the frame is a Travelling Pattern started by Cucki.  I'm not sure where it has reached now!

I also completed and mounted the Hallowe'en Ornie for March:

This is a freebie from La Contesse's blog.  I changed it slightly to make it square and added a little witch charm instead of the charted stitched bats.  It is stitched over 1 on 28count burnt orange Jazlyn.  Several people are taking part in the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL and post regularly but there aren't many Followers yet.  If you're a fan of Hallowe'en I do recommend following the blog just to see all the lovely designs there, even if you don't need another SAL challenge!

And now  for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop:

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high oer blogs and hills

When all at once I worked it out

The answer's "Dancing Daffodils"

Thank you Christine, the answer was indeed "Dancing Daffodils", a sight usually seen at this time of year but not under the snow so many of us have had.  The only reason we've not had snow here is the wind has come straight from Siberia and blown it all inland!

I did the draw this afternoon, aided and abetted by the Large Boy.  There were 15 picture posters and 37 correct answers (zero incorrect ones!) so we simply assigned everyone a playing card and picked 2 at random, one from each category.  The winners were 2 of Clubs and 9 of Spades, aka Lynda and Linda!

The first Lynda blogs from her Cozy Little Place for Stitching and the second Linda says SUch is Life.  I'll be in touch soon to discover your addresses if I don't already have them.

Thank you to everyone who entered this year and to all those who became new followers for the participating blogs.  It's a great way to discover new friends.

Finally, my Blogaversary Giveaway is still open.  See the previous post for the competition question.  Another big Thank You to everyone that has shared their answers already.  It's so much fun to find out more about you all.

June WIPocalypse and my Giveaway Winners

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.


Part 1 - My 12 in '12
1. Completed the Dark Alphabet.  Would you like to see another picture?  Just for a change, here's the one with the coffin:

2. - 10. and 12. No progress on anything

11. Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches.  Finished Part 1 except the beading and metallics.  Started Part 2.  OK, so it's a small start but it still a start!

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon
Nothing at all for Nan this month.   But I did buy a new chart complete with button for a very small amount of money.  Well, it's not worth paying P&P for 2 packs of Kreinik on their own, you have to make it upto a tenner!

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious: May Memories

For this I decided to go for Making Memories and stitched A Dark Alphabet designed in memory of Lisa Roswell and also my Joan Elliott Round Robin which is all about making memories for the person who will keep the finished design.  Here's my Butterfly Fairy for Karen:

Funnily enough, two other people stitched the same fairy this round, great minds think alike!

Finally, I did the draw for my 250 followers giveaway sponsored by Yiota's Cross Stitch Kits.  The winners chosen by Random Name Picker Large Boy were:

Kaye - Kitten Stitching

Patty C - Hanging by a Thread

Marilyn - no blog

Now, Marilyn isn't a follower (yet!), doesn't have a blog or an email in her profile and is a "No Reply" in her comments, so hopefully she'll see this post and say "oooo that's me!" and let me know which of her three choices she'd like to win.  They were:

Kittens in a Suitcase, Butterfly Fairy and Flying Dolphins.

Kaye's final choice was Anne Hathaway's Cottage and this is Patty's, Mushroom Fairy 2:

As a number of people chose Coffee Fairy as one of their choices I will keep their names and chose one person to receive my chart when I finish stitching it.  Maybe next year!  Don't hold your breath!!  I am able to do this because I have a paper original of the chart not a pdf.  Yiota did ask me to draw people's attention to her copyright information regarding pdfs.  They are for one use only and not to be shared/passed on or sold on.  The only exception is for this giveaway when she kindly said I could keep a copy of the winning chart if I want to.

It's Giveaway Time!!

Thanks to my newest follower Chiara I have now reached 250 followers and can host a sponsored giveaway!  BTW Chiara blogs as The Grey Tail and is hosting a giveaway of her own at the moment.  Why not pop across to her blog and join in?  She's a newbie to blogging so I'm sure she'd be happy to meet some new followers!

Back to MY Giveaway - A while back I was sent a free cross stitch kit by Yiota to review.  I chose the Coffee Fairy and here's my progress so far:

And here's what she will look a little like, one day:

Well, Yiota must have liked my review because she offered to sponsor a giveaway on my blog.  As I was so close to the magic 250 I decided that would be a great excuse.

All you have to do is visit Yiota's website, browse around the gorgeous designs and choose your favourite three.  Come back here and leave a comment on this post only, telling me what your three favourites are.  I will choose three people at random to receive one of their choices.  Actually, the Large Boy will randomly choose three people!

The closing date is teatime BST 31st May 2012.  There are three prizes of one pdf chart each.  The chart has to be one of Yiota's designs as they are the only ones she can make into pdfs.  The descriptions on the designs clearly state which ones are available as pdfs, so that makes it easier!

You get one entry for leaving a comment with your top three and an additional entry if you mention the giveaway and Yiota on your blog.  To qualify for the additional entry you must link the words "cross stitch kits" to Yiota's website.  The geeky reason for this is that it moves her website up the Search Engines' priority lists.  So if someone googles "cross stitch kits" Yiota's website will be closer to the top of the page the more links there are across the internet to her site with those words.

Finally, a Big Thank You to all my followers, old and new, especially those that comment.  It's so good to connect with stitchers around the world.  Next post I'll be putting up details of how to join in with the Summer Postcard Trail.  It's all go around here!

In which Some Old Finishes Finally get some Love.

As the title says, we all have old finishes stored away in our stash chests (or wherever) just pining away for some love.

The first piece is a very old cover kit from Cross Stitcher magazine issue 39, January 1996.  It was a lovely peacock bookmark which has lived in a box ever since.  When Calamity Jr made the 1000th comment on my blog I decided it would make the ideal gift for her.  I used a piece of the fabric samples I acquired last year to cover a bit of board, then stuck the peacock on with double sided tape.  I bought these lovely peacock cards from the local craft shop, they're for card-making and have lots of gold on them.  The piece of braid was the handle from the fabric sample book.  Waste not, want not!  I glued a piece of card on the back to finish it off,  Voila!

Do not adjust your set - this photo IS on the huh.

Close-up!

Calamity was absolutely over the moon with her gift which made me very happy too.

The second elderly lady in need of some attention (the peacock being the first, not Calamity!) is this one:

Just Nan - Winter Romance stitched on 28 count linen.

I stitched all four of these at the turn of the century (21st not 20th!) and they have languished in a box every since.  I got four frames for my birthday and fully intended to get them all up last Autumn.  One down, three to go!

This is the most beautiful piece in real life, probably my favourite of the four and the first of them that I stitched.  The colours are more vibrant now it's been backed and mounted.  I have fallen in love with it all over again.

I'm on a Just Nan roll now, I charted my part for Kathy's Band Sampler this afternoon and started a small last night - Spring Peepers.  These are both part of Fan Girl February on Theme-a-licious.

The third old lady is Madame Muriel, the Travelling Granny.  She's been a little quiet just lately I'm afraid.  I did have a couple of plans for her but real life has the annoying tendency to get in the way!  So my current plan is to try take her somewhere vaguely interesting during Half Term week and then make plans for her to be on her merry way.  Do not ask to host her yet - wait until you see her rider!

Finally, here is the current state of play on A Dark Alphabet.  It is now too big to fit on my scanner so you only get the bottom half.  There are four more blocks completed since I last showed you.  Phantom is based on the Lon Chaney phantom rather than the Andrew Lloyd-Webber one that I am more familiar with.  Maybe that's why it's not my favourite block.  The Queen of the Night is amazing, the tiny witch is so cute and the skeleton is just crazy.

You can see how close to finishing we are, only 7 more letters and the personalisation block to go.  The Large Boy and I have ideas for all the remaining letters except for X.   We are stumped.  He wants Ectoplasm to be spelled Exoplasm so we could have that.  The right hand border will have another column of stitches, I just got bored!

I did attempt some tiny Queen Stitches for Q but did 4 sided diamonds with one vertical stitch.  That is the only drawback to stitching over 1, the speciality stitches either don't work or are just too fiddly and don't show.  On the plus side it's a manageable size (A3) and I love the delicate look of over 1.  It's a 28count evenweave.

Theme-a-licious Looking Back and Forward plus another Secret Surprise Giveaway

The Theme for January was Jardin Janvier, so I stitched Green Goddess.  She is all leaves and flowers so most appropriate for the theme.  I haven’t stitched on her since my update on the 23^rd so the pic on the right hand sidebar of this blog is the latest one.

The Theme for February is Fan Girl February.  So of course Joan Elliott's Green Goddess will be top of the list!  I also have a Just Nan Round Robin to stitch on and there's a Teresa Wentzler Dragon SAL on FB to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.  I'm thinking of stitching one of the small freebies for that one.  I really should stitch a Nora Corbett just to complete my quartet of Favourites.  Trick or Treat is on my 12 in '12 list and I have the fabric.  Maybe just one little weekend.  What a shame February is such a short month!

For Jardin I also stitched a Birthday card from WOCS for a member of the Needlecraft Haven featuring a February violet.  I can’t show that one until the Birthday Gal has received it.

Speaking of Birthday Gals, it was Mouse’s Birthday this month so I stitched her a little Margaret Sherry design featuring, what else, but two little mice stitching a picture.  I used my delicious fruit tea dyed evenweave.  I used two bags of Echinacea and Raspberry tea and soaked the fabric for quite some time.  That is a technical term for “I’ve forgotten how long but it was a while”.  The smell while I stitched was amazing!  I don’t know if it lasted until Mouse received the card, I hope so.  I used some lovely De Havilland silk for the purple and an Oliver Twist for the pink.  This was slightly variegated and lovely to stitch with.  The needle is, of course, a gold needle.  Only the best for these mice.

The design is a freebie from the Cross Stitcher website found here.  Please note, that link takes you to the magazine freebie page but the Margaret Sherry designs are ONLY available to subscribers via the special Craft Circle pages.  Sorry!  There are some lovely freebies on the page I've linked to make up for it.

Here’s another delayed gratification finish:

This was the January Monthly Freebie Challenge chosen by Christine on the Needlecraft Haven board.  The original blog Les Chroniques de Frimousse showed several difference colourways but all three of the finishes so far chose the blue and yellow.  Great minds stitch alike!  I used some scraps to make some extra snowflakes and scrapbooked it with some silver snowflakes too.  It is currently on display in my box frame but will go into the book when I complete the February Challenge.  I added the Russian for Happy New Year myself.  At least I hope that's what it says and not "Potato Soup".  The Large Boy's Russian classmate was on holiday that week so I couldn't even check with her.

The more eagle-eyed of you may have spotted my followers have multiplied to over 200 now!  I decided to have another Secret Giveaway for the monumentous event.  I went through the last 200 comments on my Dashboard and tallied up how many times each person had commented.  (Fun Things Statisticians Do In Their Free Time No 95).

77 different people commented in all.  I’m so pleased with that because it means a lot of my followers are still here and still talking to me!  There were 4 people out in front with 9 or 10 comments each.  Out of those 4 –

Christine

is the lucky winner of the Secret Surprise Giveaway!

If you pop over to Christine's blog using the above link you will see her version of the Russian Doll.  I'll be sending a little something to you very soon Christine, so look out for an email asking for your address.

I just spotted this in my Blog Roll - you'll love it!  A little something from Stitchin' Kat and what a surprise - you can make it into a biscornu!!  Fortunately it's a full size one not the dinky tinies she stitched last year.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then read her blog and marvel at all the tiny biscornu (biscorni? biscornues?)

Finally, don’t forget the Secret Stitching Sweetheart activity for Valentines Day.  Email me your stitched pics by 10^th February to join in the fun.  More details here.

.

Secret Giveaway, Guest Blogger and my oldest WIPS/UFOs

As well as the 7 Epiphany Giveaways I also had a secret surprise giveaway going on behind the scenes.  I like to look at the stats page on my dashboard and see where everyone is coming from.  I was so pleased that in December I had nearly 4,000 hits thanks to the Advent Calendar activity!  Anyway I looked at my comments list and saw I was nearly upto 1,000 comments.  I've been keeping an eye open and the 1,000th comment was made by Calamity Jr (aka Mary Jane).  She will be receiving a special gift in the (near) future.

I expect many of you will recognise her name from comments on your own blogs even though Calamity Jr doesn't have a blog (yet!) so I invited her to share a little about herself on my blog.  Here's what she said:

"I can't say when I started stitching, since it seems like it's been forever.  I started with crewel embroidery probably in junior high, which was a very long time ago, haha.  Somewhere I learned about counted cross stitch, and it became my number one needlework love.  For awhile I had a stall in a craft mall, where I sold a few cross stitched items (no way to make back what you put into them, though) along with hand painted things, like sweatshirts and address book covers.  When there was a LNS near, I stitched quite a few of their display pieces, and it was always fun to go in and see my work on their walls.   Until recently I have stitched mostly larger, framed designs, and most often as gifts.  However, since I've discovered the world wide community of bloggers who also prefer to live with needle in hand, I've managed a few smalls and even kept some for my own home!

On the personal side, I met my husband in January of our senior year in high school, married 3 1/2 years later, and we've been blessed with one amazing daughter, Jen, who's in school in Kansas City, MO.  (I won't get started there; it would take too much typing and I always pop buttons because I'm so darn proud of her.)  We have a 5 1/2 year old golden doodle (golden retriever and standard poodle mix) who is a great buddy and who keeps me exercised, since he really likes his daily walks.  I work in a dental office very close to home, which is great because I get home for lunch with my "boys" every day.  I do all the office type work - phones, scheduling, insurance, checking people in and out, etc.

And that's me - Calamity Jr aka Mary Jane or MJ."
And here are some pics of MJ's work:

This last one is on my "To Do" list for the large boy because we say it to each other all the time!

I hope you all found that as interesting as I did, it's great to learn more about your followers.  And I'm not at all worried about stitching something now!  Nothing like stitching for a semi-pro to make you feel nervous at all!

I must remember to give Thanks to Daffycat for the idea of a secret giveaway, I think it's such fun because it's rewarding the people who comment anyway.

If any more of my non-blogging followers would like to share their stitching (and life stories) here please send me some pics and info.  It's so great to meet you all and find out more about you.  Basically I'm just really nosey.

I also have to thank some of the bloggers who've been talking about their oldest WIPS and UFOs.  I can't remember which blog is hosting this event but here are mine which I found in this chest this afternoon:

I saw these completed on someone's blog over Christmas.  I started these years ago (mid 1990s) and have stalled slightly as you can see.  The trouble is I just didn't feel like stitching on them at any other time than December!

Here's a close up of the "L".  Please do NOT click on the pic and look at the hardanger!  Hopefully that has improved in the intervening years!

This one is a total mystery.  I can't even remember starting it.  There is no thread, just a photocopy of a chart, a scrap of blue aida and a display hoop.  There is a clue to the age as there is a price list for Barbie clothing which I bought as a Christmas present for a friend's 7 year old daughter.  She must be at least 26 now!  Luckily the threads listed are all DMC so I can easily finish it.

Mini competition (no prize, just a feeling of being old but clever) - can you identify the shop the bag belongs to?  The kit didn't come from that shop, it's just been stored in it for at least 17 years.  Clue - they were proud that most of their produce was Made in Britain.

And finally, here's a little scrapbooked finish.  A Gazette 94 freebie for the New Year.  Cute as ever from Claire.

Stitched on 28 count green evenweave.

The "scrapbook" finish is deliberately very simple. 

I do not want to "over egg" these designs as I am inclined to do sometimes!

edited to add:  The oldest UFO is hosted by Evalina here.  I have to post on the last day of every month (if I've stitched on them that month).  Oh goody, another date to remember LOL.

.

Giveaway Winners and Theme-a-licious Check-in

As part of the 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland activity organised by Evalina, I had not one, but seven Giveaways on the same day - Epiphany.  So that didn't make the draw complicated at all!  I used the untechnical method of putting all the names in a cup and getting the large boy to pull them out.

Without further ado, here are the winners:

Giveaway 1, the cute charts booklet - won by Sarah-Beth
Giveaway 2, the Calendar - won by Topcho
Giveaway 3, the Vintage charts booklet - won by Blue Star Stitcher
Giveaway 4, the little house decorations - won by Anna the Stitch Bitch
Giveaway 5, Maderia Metallics - won by Kat
Giveaway 6, the ornie stitched by moi - won by Terri
Giveaway 7, the San Man quilt shop - won by Lanybleu

I was so flattered by the number of people who wanted the stitched ornie, especially given my self-proclaimed lack of finishing skills!  So I've decided to invite everyone who entered Giveaway No 6 to send me an email with their Birthdate and address so I can send them a card on their special day.  You know who you are, send me the details!

The booklets, kit and metallics will be posted out after the 20th (payday!) and the two stitched pieces sometime this year hahaha.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

The second part of this post is dedicated to Theme-a-licious, Jardin January.  Hosted by Heather, click on the above link for details. 

I've been stitching on Green Goddess by Joan Elliott and here is the progress so far:

I'm "rounding" her face out with fractionals.  My Mum saw the piece and didn't like the "stepped" look using whole stitches.  It's one of my only criticisms of Joan's work, her skin is often "stepped" and blocky.  I much prefer Nora Corbett's limbs!!

This also fits in with the Jardin theme.  It was actually stitched in December for a Birthday Card Exchange.  We received the list of Birthdays on 20th December and the first one was on January 1st!!  So I had to work extra quick to get this one out on time.  It's a method I've used before, just stitch the backstitch then colour in the shading with felt-tipped pens.  The design is from WOCS, part of their Year of Flowers.  I've used aida because it's easy to colour.

And finally, just when I've made the decision to "Stitch from Stash" this year, Just Nan go and send me an email with a link to this Snow Flowers.  Why would they do that?  Why?  Don't they know I have enough Just Nan charts for my Just Nan-a-thon already?  Anyway there's a little poll in the top right of my blog - how many of my existing Just Nans do I have to stitch to justify buying this new one?  Please help.....

I'm having an Epiphany

Well, actually I'm having a Giveaway for Epiphany!   This is part of Evalina's 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland activity.

January 6th is the Twelfth Day of Christmas the day the Kings/Wise Men came to visit Baby Jesus and give him gifts.  So here they are, bearing gifts for my followers.

There are seven draws, one for each king and each wise man.  What's that?  They are the same thing?  Don't you know your Joyce Grenfell?  For those of you unaware of the amazing Joyce Grenfell, please follow the link to some of her monologues.  In the mean time here is the relevant excerpt.  Imagine a Nursery School teacher organising the Christmas Nativity play:

Now, my Wise Men here, please!
Billy, Peter and George.
And George, Wise Men never do that...
Now my Kings, please.Of course, Mrs Binton, we know that by tradition the Wise Men and the Kings are one and the same, but we did want everyone in our Nursery School Nativity Play to have a chance, so we have taken a few liberties, and I don't think any one will mind...
Now Kings: Sidney, Neville, Cliff and Nikolas Anoniodes.Four Kings, I'm afraid. We happen to have four lovely crowns, so it seemed a pity not to use them.Sidney, put your crown on straight please, not over one eye. What have you got under your jersey?
That's not the place for a hamster, is it. Put him straight back in his little pen, please.

Draw Number 1 is this booklet of Springtime designs plus 2 cards and envelopes.  It was a cover gift with World of Cross Stitching magazine.

 Draw Number 2 is a Fizzy Moon Calendar for 2012 which includes four exclusive cute charts as pictured on the front cover.

Draw Number 3 is this booklet of vintage designs.   It was a cover gift with Cross Stitcher magazine and I was really looking forward to this until I realised all the designs had already been in the magazine!  However if you haven't got this mag where you live it is a lovely prize.

Draw Number 4 is a set of Christmas House ornaments.  The kit includes material, aida, felt, ribbon, buttons and threads (which are not DMC or Anchor and you may want to sub them!).  I've seen these stitched up and they are rather nice, but I don't do the whole sewing thing!  I will include the instructions on how to make them up too.

Draw Number 5 is a selection of Madeira Metallics.  I won these for having a letter printed in a magazine but I already have alot of DMC metallics so I would rather these went to a good home.

Draw Number 6 is a "Stitching Friends" ornie stitched by my own fair hands.  Here is a similar one, but your's will be in blue.  And the corners will match!

The final Draw Number 7 is just for Quilters.  The San Man Originals Forum has had a New Year makeover and there are the cutest little shop designs there.  I am desperate to stitch the Quilt Shop for someone but I don't know any quilters!  So if you quilt (and have blog evidence to prove it!) then this is for you.

No pic because it is copyright to San Man.

Rules, only one - comment on this post by Friday 13th (lucky for some!) stating:

Which draws you would like to enter.  You can enter all or some of them but you must be a quilter to enter Draw 7.  Or have a mother/sister/aunt/partner/relative who quilts that you will gift the prize to.  Please tell me who this is in your comment.

Good Luck to everyone who enters.